March 1 (Reuters) – An outburst in Australia this week by
the Pentagon’s chief buyer for the costly F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter risks undermining the program at home and abroad, U.S.
defense officials and industry experts say.

At an Australian air show, Lieutenant General Christopher
Bogdan accused the plane’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin Corp
and engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United
Technologies Corp, of trying to “squeeze every nickel”
out of the U.S. government for the planes.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Thursday it would resume flights of its F-35 fighter jets following a week-long precautionary grounding imposed after a crack was found on an engine blade on a test plane in California.

“F-35 flight operations have been cleared to resume,” Pentagon spokeswoman Kyra Hawn said in a statement. She said flights could begin as early as Friday, depending on weather conditions.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Thursday it was reviewing a recommendation by Pratt & Whitney to resume flights and ground operations of the F-35 fighter jet after a week-long grounding prompted by a cracked engine blade, but no decision has yet been made.

Spokeswoman Kyra Hawn said officials from the U.S. Air Force, Navy and the Pentagon’s F-35 program office were reviewing data from a comprehensive engineering investigation conducted by Pratt about the cracked blade discovered on a test plane in Florida on February 19.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Wednesday that no additional cracks have been found on F-35 fighter engines during inspections begun after the February 19 incident that halted flights of the entire fighter fleet, and operation of the engines on the ground.

Kyra Hawn, spokeswoman for the F-35 program office, said officials were continuing to investigate a cracked engine blade found on a test plane at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, with engineers at enginemaker Pratt & Whitney due to break open the affected engine blade for further study on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pratt & Whitney is 99 percent sure the fan blade problem that grounded the Pentagon’s 51 new F-35 fighter jets was not caused by high-cycle fatigue, which could force a costly design change, according to two sources familiar with an investigation by the enginemaker.

Company engineers have concluded that a 0.6 inch-long crack found on a turbine blade in the engine of an F-35 jet at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida was almost certainly caused by lesser issues, such as high heat exposure or a manufacturing problem, that would be easier to solve, the sources said.

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Monday
an F-35 test plane was involved in an incident on Feb. 14 that
caused smoke in the cockpit, and it was sending the affected
parts back to their manufacturer, Honeywell International Inc
, for a detailed inspection.

Kyra Hawn, spokeswoman for the $396 billion F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter program, said an initial assessment of the
incident at a Maryland air base showed it was isolated,
software-related, and posed minimal risk. The Pentagon has made
temporary changes to prevent another smoke incident, she said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Monday an F-35 test plane was involved in an incident on February 14 that caused smoke in the cockpit, and it was sending the affected parts back to their manufacturer, Honeywell International Inc, for a detailed inspection.

Kyra Hawn, spokeswoman for the $396 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, said an initial assessment of the incident at a Maryland air base showed it was isolated, software-related, and posed minimal risk. Interim changes had been implemented to prevent another smoke incident, she said.

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Monday
an F-35 test plane was involved in an incident on Feb. 14 that
caused smoke in the cockpit, and it was sending the affected
parts back to their manufacturer, Honeywell International Inc
, for a detailed inspection.

Kyra Hawn, spokeswoman for the $396 billion F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter program, said an initial assessment of the
incident at a Maryland air base showed it was isolated,
software-related, and posed minimal risk. Interim changes had
been implemented to prevent another smoke incident, she said.

CANBERRA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – This year’s second grounding of Lockheed Martin Corp’s vaunted F-35 warplane, plus looming U.S. defense cuts, are likely to complicate a push this week by Lockheed and U.S. officials to convince wary Australian lawmakers and generals to stick to a plan to buy 100 of the jets.

Australia, a close American ally, is considering doubling its fleet of 24 Boeing Co F/A-18 Super Hornets amid delays and setbacks in Lockheed’s $396 billion F-35 project.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The engine blade crack that prompted the U.S. military to ground all 51 F-35 fighter jets was over half an inch long, according to three sources familiar with the matter, but it remained unclear if the crack was caused by a manufacturing anomaly or some larger design issue.

Engineers at Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, will conduct a detailed examination of the turbine blade as soon as it arrives at the company’s Middletown, Connecticut, site, said spokesman Matthew Bates.